Clichés and Kisses
by sangkar
Summary: "I like it when clichés are played straight." / "What?" / "Oh, nothing." :: RoseScorpius, for Andie. :: T for slight language and, of course, kissing.


**:: Clichés and Kisses ::****  
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_dedicated to the wonderful andie for hosting the opac christmas fic exchange and for being an amazing person in general. _

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"Could you please move over a little so I can reach that book, Weasley?"

Rose looked up at Scorpius, bewildered. Her blue eyes were wide behind her huge, black-rimmed glasses. "Oh. Right. Sorry," she muttered, hastily moving over to let Scorpius reach that book of his. He did so, and thought about how strange Rose Weasley was, always behind that mess of curly red-brown hair and buried in a book. He'd never really spoken to her before; they were both in Ravenclaw but she was such a timid thing that she hadn't many friends.

Dominique tugged on Scorpius' sleeve.

"_Scor_pius," she simpered. "We're here to talk, not to read. You're always reading, don't you have time for me?"

Scorpius felt a bit of irritation towards her. But he could bear it. If this was the price to be paid for having Dominique as a date to the Yule Ball, so be it.

In the background, Rose Weasley sighed, just a little, before going back to her book.

Biting back remarks about how libraries were _meant _for quiet reading and not listening to your slightly annoying date to the Yule Ball criticizing everyone's style of wearing their robes and scarves, Scorpius sat down obediently and began to listen to Dominique whisper-ranting about the afore-mentioned woes of her life.

Rose smiled.

.

Scorpius scowled and chewed on his piece of chicken. He was having an _awful_ time. He'd made a mistake in asking Dominique to the Yule Ball; he could see that clearly now - why hadn't he seen it before? He'd had weeks of being harassed and provoked by her and it was _now _that he decided to realize that he didn't actually care for her, not one bit.

Well, okay, sure, the other guys might be jealous because Dom was definitely the prettiest, sexiest, most desirable girl in the whole of Hogwarts, but she was absolutely no fun at all. All she was interested in doing was snarking about how all the other girls at the ball had such horrendous outfits and how _glad _she was that she wasn't going out with Kyle Longbottom because look at how clumsily he danced and he must be a pretty horrible guy to date because he hadn't bothered to even iron his shirt -

"Kyle's a pretty nice guy, actually," Scorpius cut in scathingly, biting into another piece of chicken. "Whether or not you iron your shirt is not the most foolproff way of judging a person's character. I highly doubt that he'd have wanted to go with someone like you, anyway," he added under his breath.

"Ex_cuse _me!" said Dominique in reply, looking highly offended at such an implication. "_What _are you saying?"

"Nothing," Scorpius muttered. Dominique was just so profoundly stupid, sometimes. Most of the time, actually.

"Good," sniffed Dominique, rearranging her long, pretty legs and smirking when Lysander Scamander nudged his friend John Finnigan before both of them gaped openly at them.

Scorpius' scowl, if it were possible, got deeper.

"I need to go and, uh ... get a drink," he said hurriedly, getting up from the table. Dominique nodded. "Be sure to come back for the next song so we can dance!" she called, but Scorpius was already off and on his way to the drinks stand.

He wished he could be more grateful that Dom had agreed to go with him to the Yule Ball - and he _had_ been. In the past tense.

When he'd managed to corner her just after a Gryffindor/Ravenclaw Potions lesson and asked her to be his partner, and she'd smirked and batted her eyelashes in a way that she though was seductive (and he had to admit, he did, too, then), he'd been the happiest guy in Hogwarts.

Until the three weeks leading up to the ball, in which she'd spent every single possible moment hanging off his arm and tossing her head and talking about herself in that high-pitched, nasally, wannabe-American voice of hers.

Scorpius was unable to go to the library for those weeks because she just wouldn't keep quiet; she'd whisper her disapproval of what her cousin Rose was wearing that day (Rose was Scorpius' fellow Ravenclaw and Dominique's least liked cousin for her massive glasses and books, and she was always present in the library), or she'd snicker whenever someone walked in with less-than-perfect hair. Madam Pince hated her.

"Why is that girl always with you?" the librarian cried one day, exasperated and tired of having to shush Dominique four times before having chased her out. (To which Dominique had reacted most acidly; she seemed thoroughly betrayed when Scorpius did not rush to defend her.) "Mister Malfoy, I'd always approved of you until now, but _that girl ... _" She dissolved into aggravated mutters.

Now, Scorpius looked around at the throng of lively Hogwarts students in the Great Hall, which had been decorated nicely to suit the occasion. He spotted his friend Kyle Longbottom dancing with Lily Potter, but they seemed to have given up on proper dancing and were simply swaying to the music together and talking animatedly.

At the other end of the hall, Jenna Oliver and her partner Terry Goldman were dominating the dance floor - Scorpius could almost feel Dominique frowning at them. She hated not being in the center of attention.

Standing right in front of him was Rose Weasley. Her curly red locks, usually loose and blocking her face, was secured in a simple white ribbon. She had her head in a book, which was probably why nobody was noticing her, but Scorpius did.

She was beautiful. Really beautiful. Why hadn't he noticed her before?

Rose Weasley hadn't really been anything to him other than the shy girl in his year who liked reading more than anything and was good friends with her Hufflepuff cousins Albus and Roxanne. They'd spoken a few times, but it they weren't close. But here she was ... looking like the most beautiful thing he'd seen.

"Rose Weasley?" he said, finally daring to say something.

She looked up, startled. "Oh, hi, Scorpius," she said, relieved. Her voice was pretty, Scorpius noted randomly. "Er ... didn't you ... aren't you supposed to be with Dominique?" Scorpius heard the tone of resentment in her voice.

"I guess I'm supposed to be, but she's a bit ..." he tried and failed to think of a polite but accurate way of describing her.

Rose laughed sympathetically. "I know what you mean. She's a bit ... yeah, a bit of a diva, isn't she?"

"Very. She reminds me a little of my grandmother, you know, really judgmental."

"Judgmental's a good word," nodded Rose. "I'll tell you who she's like - our Aunt Muriel. _Ugh,_" she said emphatically, rolling her eyes. "Rose Katherine Weasley!" Her voice was pinched and affected. "Your arms are too flimsy, you'll never have curves! You look like a scarecrow! For goodness' sake, _tie _up that mop of hair and pull your head out of that book!"

Scorpius grinned. "Oh, no, I think she's more like my grandmother; she never says outright to the person what she thinks, but she's all _judgejudgejudge oh my Gawd that hair_ -"

Rose laughed. She closed her book and put it in her little bag - the same bag Scorpius had always seen her use for her books. "True, I guess."

"But seriously, her sister Victoire isn't half as bad as she is, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I always did like her better. Dominique's a mommy's girl, though, and her mom ... well, she's French, need I say more?"

"Stereotypist!" accused Scorpius.

"Is that even a word?" Rose replied, mock-affronted.

"I guess not, if you, O great book nerd think otherwise," Scorpius said solemnly.

Rose slapped his arm. "You're no better than Muriel!"

"Hey!"

They laughed together for a grand total of two seconds (of which Scorpius decided were the best two seconds of the evening) before Rose widened her eyes in warning and nodded her head - at Dominique, who was making her way to the two of them, her heels clacking and her nose high in the air. She scowled at them both.

"Scorpius?" she asked, seeming expectant. Scorpius felt like a deer in the headlights. What the hell _did _this girl want?

"Er ... ?"

"_Ask her to dance,_" Rose hisses out of the corner of her mouth.

"Oh. Right. Well. Um, Dominique," Scorpius stuttered. "Um ... would you like to, uh, dance with me?"

She nodded curtly, but seemed satisfied. "I'd love to."

(They both knew she was lying.)

.

"Ah, the Firewhisky Trio!" Dominique exclaimed as the first song changed into a thumpy, loud and thoroughly disorienting blast of music. "I love them. Especially Samuel Johnson. Like, whoa." Scorpius nearly cringed - she was on full fangirl mode, complete with the horrible, excited American accent. "He's _hot._"

Scorpius was extremely uncomfortable. Was this what girls talked about with their boyfriends? He glanced over at Rose Weasley, who giggled and flashed him a thumbs-up. She wasn't dancing. He grinned back at her, making sure Dom couldn't see; for some reason, the fact that he knew of a single sane girl he could talk to without feeling like an idiot comforted him.

"... I mean, not like Morris Caulton, 'course not, but he's good enough," said Dominique. She seemed to have ended the little ramble of hers and was now looking at Scorpius expectantly, urging him to say something.

"Uh ... oh. Um ... so who _is _Morris Caulton?"

Dom glared at him. "_Morris Caulton _is the most famous American wizard of our time, Scorpius!" she declared loudly, causing several people to glance over at her. Scorpius did his best to smile at them all apologetically. "Oh, Scorpius ..." she sighed. "I'm at a loss for words, currently."

"I ..." said Scorpius, perplexed. He _was _a little annoyed at her statement, but what was he to say? "I'm sorry?"

Dominique stared at him for what seemed like a minute, her clear grey eyes boring into his green ones, her lips set in a thin line and her eyes narrowed.

"We're through," she said finally, and it took a while for her words to sink in. And when they did, all Scorpius could think to say was: "Oh. Alright."

"Scorpius!" she cried, seemingly scandalized and repulsed by his response. "Ugh, you..." It seemed to be that she couldn't think of a word to describe him. "You're just like the third type of boys described in _The Witch's Daily Glitz._" Scorpius decided that snorting would not be a good idea right now. "You know," - Scorpius didn't know - "they look cute and they seem cool at first but as soon as you're on the brink of becoming _official, _they piss you off."

Scorpius simply stared.

"I'm going to go dance with Lysander Scamander, goodbye."

With one last look of disgust cast at Scorpius, Dominique storms off.

"I ... what?" Scorpius said to one one in particular.

His cousin, Theodore Nott the second elbows him gently. "First time rejection, huh?" he asked, winking.

"Um," said Scorpius.

"It's okay, pal," Theodore assured him, but Scorpius could see the light smirk playing on his lips. "You'll figure them girls out soon enough."

"I'm fifteen, Theodore, shouldn't I have figured them out by now?"

"Oh, I don't know. You might just be slow. A late bloomer." Theodore patted his head condescendingly. "It's okay," he repeated. "Sooner or later you'll get the hang of it. You'd just better hope it's not later, all the good ones will be gone before long." And with that ever-so-helpful piece of advice, Theodore disappeared into the crowd of pulsing, dancing Hogwarts students.

"Well, thanks," Scorpius muttered.

.

He would've spent the rest of the evening simply sitting alone, very self-conscious of the fact that the hottest girl in school had just dumped him. And they hadn't even been together officially - if not for Rose Weasley.

"Dom dumped you, hm?" she said as she spotted him walking back to the drinks table. It was more of a statement than a fact; half the students already seemed to know.

"Yes," Scorpius replied shortly. It was really getting irritating, people acting as if all that had happened to him that evening (i.e., Dominique, dumping him, because he really wasn't a terribly interesting or popular person) were all their business.

Rose patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. He felt himself relaxing just a little. "Might've guessed. Heard it from Lysander - he was going around yelling to everyone who'd hear that he was with her now."

Scorpius sighed.

"Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, it's - "

"Who said I was?"

"No, just - "

"I'm not beating myself over it, she ticked me off quite a bit."

"That's what I was just about to say, Scorpius," Rose informed him. "I should've told you as soon as I found out you were taking her to the Yule Ball with you."

"Why didn't you, then?" Scorpius questioned, tilting his head at her slightly. "You would have saved me quite a bit of embarrassment and time, you know. "

"Yeah, sorry, but it would've made it seem like - " she cut herself off in mid-sentence.

"Like what?"

Scorpius could've sworn that Rose blushed just then. "Like ... um ..."

"..."

"Oh, come on, use your head. If I'd told you to stay away from a girl you were hooking up with - "

"I wasn't - "

"- I mean, come on, _think. _What would it seem like to everyone else?"

Scorpius was entirely befuddled. "Um ... why'd they know?"

"_Let's just say _they did."

"I ... dunno?"

Rose huffed and rolled her eyes. "_Boys._"

"Hey!"

"It would've seemed to them that I bloody liked you, Scorpius, because I didn't want you to get hooked up - oh, yes it was - with Dominique!" cried Rose, exasperated. "Like I was, I dunno, jealous of her or something. I dunno." She shrugged and kept her eyes glued to the floor.

"But ..." Scorpius was still confused. "You don't actually like me, anyway, we never really talked before today - did you?"

Rose kept silent, growing redder by the second.

"Oh," said Scorpius, the gears clicking in his head. "Um. Oh. Right."

The blank, painfully awkward silence stretched on for what seemed like a very long while.

"I was never good with people," Rose said finally. "I should've just denied denied denied, right?"

"Uh," said Scorpius. "I ... I don't know? I mean, I'm not very good with people either, obviously," - Rose allowed herself a little laugh - "so it's actually ... I don't mind knowing."

Rose stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"I ... um. Maybe I could like you?"

Scorpius had felt the utter shame as his family discovered he had been Sorted into Ravenclaw. He remembered what it was like to be shunned by his whole extended family. He'd experienced the crushing sense of defeat as Ravenclaw lost to Slytherin for the fourth year in a row. Scorpius had felt incredible humiliation when Dom dumped him three minutes ago.

Right at this moment, he felt like all that was _nothing _compared to the level of awkwardness between him and (an unhelpfully gorgeous) Rose Weasley - so thick he could've sliced it with a knife.

"That would be nice."

Their eyes met, and Scorpius felt like one of those weird main love interests of his little sister's cheesy thirteen-year-old romance novels. His heart skipped a beat and everything felt kind of ... sparkly.

(He'd never be a poet.)

Before he knew it, Rose had leaned forward and kissed him right on the lips. They stayed there for three extraordinarily long seconds, absolutely no one paying attention to them, Scorpius' mind going completely blank. Right. Just when he could've used a witty, funny thing to say, his brain decided to shut down on him.

Rose's lips felt good, though. This registered just as she pulled away from him. God, he was slow. And while they were kissing, she'd apparently put her arms around his neck and he'd placed a hand on he waist.

"Uh."

Rose smiled hesitantly. Scorpius felt a bit like a dog she'd just fed - she was waiting to see whether he liked her.

"I liked that," he said stupidly. Rose giggled and hugged him.

People were beginning to take notice of them. Lakshimi Finnigan and her best, inseparable friend Kitty Gregor were nudging each other and giggling. Albus Weasley and his date, Millie Jepsen shouted encouragements good-naturedly. "Good one, Scor!" "Go for it, Rose!"

Rose had a smile that lit up her already radiant face. "Again, Malfoy?" she asked him playfully, winking.

"Oh, why not?"

This time, her lips were right on his at exactly the right place. Scorpius hated to admit it, but he'd only ever kissed one girl, Astrid Kite, and that was just a silly second-year thing. But he could tell that Rose was _good. _Where'd she learn it from?

"Scorpius!" gasped a voice. A high-pitched, nasally, wannabe-American voice. A collective, dramatic "OOOOOOH" went through the audience. Dominique had arrived to complete Rose and Scorpius' first kiss by throwing in a touch of the good old, clichéd, diva act.

"I ... Rose ... how ... ?"

Scorpius waited. Rose waited. The audience waited. A few teachers looked over at them.

"I ..." Dominique's lip trembled. _Oh, damn it. _Scorpius really didn't like her one bit, but he never liked making people cry.

"Oh, go get a fucking room," she said finally. Scorpius' eyes widened; he could've sworn she had a little grin on her face ...

Damn it, nobody ever played clichés straight in real life.

"No thanks," Rose said, turning to Scorpius and giving him the best, longest kiss she could. The little audience cheered. Rose and Scorpius were both flushed; neither of them liked having the limelight at all, but this felt nice.

"Finally," she said to him quietly, their foreheads touching. Scorpius had a wild, goofy grin on his face. "I never thought you'd see me as anything other than a book nerd you saw whenever you went to the library."

"Oh, Rose. Birds of a feather flock together."

"If that's your idea of a romantic line, I don't approve."

"I don't care."

They kissed again.

"Uh, Miss Weasley and Mister Malfoy? Do keep it G-rated."

Scorpius laughed. "Don't worry, Professor McGonagall, not going there. Yet," he added under his breath. Rose heard. She grinned.

.

"Hey, Rose?"

"Yeah?" Rose tugged on a lock of hair absent-mindedly as the two of them strolled hand-in-hand through the gardens just outside the hall.

"You don't have to be jealous of Dominique."

"I never said I was."

"Oh, yes, you were - did you have a crush on me or not?"

Rose elbowed him. "'Kay, fine. What were you saying?"

"You don't have to be jealous of Dominique." He paused. Rose raised her eyebrows slightly, expecting Scorpius to go along with something stupid like _You'll always be more beautiful _or _You have more to offer _or whatever stupid cliched things boys said to girls nowadays.

"You're a way better kisser than she is."

"I ... what?" she demanded. "Scorpius Malfoy, I hope you're joking!"

He laughed, his eyes going all cute and small as his mouth cracked open in a smile. "Fell for it."

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you totally did."

"Whatever," said Rose. "I'll make sure I'll always be a better kisser than anyone else who happens to somehow or other find their way to your lips."

She pressed her lips onto his for the thousandth time that night. "Mmh," protested Scorpius, but she stayed there, moving her neck a little, just like she remembered seeing that Muggle couple doing it from outside her window. Huh. It worked.

"That was good."

"Oh, Scorpius. You always think of the silliest things to say after kisses - 'I liked that'," she mimicked in a bad imitation of Scorpius' voice.

"Shut up."

They kissed again, for the last time that night.

"The stars are really beautiful tonight," Rose lamented, sighing happily as the both stared into the deep, dark night with her arms around his shoulder and his around her waist. Scorpius smiled at her a little giddily.

"So are you."

"Ooh, cliché."

"This is the part when you snuggle up to me and giggle happily and generally play the part of the clichéd, lovestruck girl," Scorpius informed Rose.

"Oh, shut up."

"But you are," he insisted.

"What?" she asked.

"You're beautiful."

A short silence passed before Rose snuggled up to Scorpius, giggled happily and generally played the part of the clichéd, lovestruck girl. They stayed there with their fingers entwined and eyes on the infinite, beautiful night sky.

"I like it when clichés are played straight," he said vaguely.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing."

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**author's note: **No, this is not my best work, I know okay sorry. T_T But yeah I've got no idea how dances or proms or whatevers (Or romance in general xD) work, so do point out any insufficiencies you spot in there. ;)


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